A New Conquest
by Deikage
Summary: Kankuro was used to getting what he wanted, he could have any woman and he was sure of it, but when he's tasked at gathering information about the teaching at Konoha academy he finds a redheaded fireball that could prove to be his biggest challenge yet. Kankuro/OC
1. Chapter 1

Akari Mizumo rubbed her temples, loud noises sounding from around her which was expected from a class of 9 year olds that were enthusiastic about becoming young ninja, that however didn't make it much easier on her ears at such an early time in the morning. She had only been working at Konoha's ninja academy for 2 months by that point and already it was draining her like nothing she had known before, even missions had proved easier to deal with that the bunch that sat before her. Her parents had once stated that she would do well working with kids, that she could deal with them well and could inspire them to better with their lives, but now Akari was beginning to think that they had been incredibly wrong when trying to push her in this direction.

Then again that was the main reason she had come to the academy to teach in the first place, losing her parents had caused her to have a need to fulfill the wishes they had for her life, they hadn't really wanted her to be a ninja that took on dangerous missions despite the fact that she had earned the rank of Jounin and could have probably even moved further than that. But everything changed the moment she had lost them, the fact that she had not been there to protect or save them had pushed her away from leaving Konoha, she'd declined many missions before the Hokage offered her the alternative, a way of still making money to keep her home and herself looked after while not pushing her to face her demons and go out of the village.

To Tsunade it had been a shame, especially when she saw potential in a person and something then held them back from achieving it, but at the same time she had taken pity on the girl, listened to her words and found a compromise. Really she had never considered Akari to be a person that would have taught in academy, with a quick temper and being defensive she had always thought it better for her to let it out in the field, but in the back of her mind she had hoped that over time being at the academy would eventually bring her back to taking over her previous position, realising that it wasn't quite right for her but so far the young woman had been stubborn and hadn't budged on the prospect of going back to taking missions again, the Hokage wasn't so sure why she was surprised at that point.

Akari's personality fit her bright red hair, she was like a flame that was ready to burn everything around it at a minutes notice, and that didn't change when she was dealing with rowdy children either.

"That is enough!" she yelled out, her patience finally coming to end. Her voice came out as any loud teachers would have, a sudden silence falling over the class who had turned to stare at their sensei whose brow was now twitching in annoyance, it seemed to have become the daily start to her days over the past month, at first they were fawning over her, but now they were taking liberties and she was putting her foot down.

"Are you okay Akari-sensei?" voiced a girl towards the back of the class, her voice a little smug and bratty which only proved to further annoy her at that moment. It didn't surprise her that the girls of the class were already starting to act like teenagers, their maturity levels already ahead of many of the boys she had in the class who mostly still saw girls as gross and worms as cool, but that early in a morning she wasn't prepared to be messed about.

"Outside! All of you!"

Groans could be heard from all around as they were filed outside, bitter glances given to the blonde girl all knowing what was about to come. Akari wasn't the most ruthless compared to others that had taught at the academy in the past, but she certainly didn't deal well when someone tried to be smart with her, and she proved this as orders were barked and her class groaned, all falling into a slow jog around the academy training grounds. When she was a teen practicing with her kunai against a target was her punishment, but the kids in her class would have probably preferred grabbing something sharp and flinging them around.

"I feel like I see you out here more than I see you in your classroom," came a voice from behind her. It was easy enough to recognise the voice that belonged to her mentor, Iruka.

When she first applied to the job at the academy she had been taken under his wing so to speak, shown the ropes by him, the do's and don'ts of teaching at the academy and somewhere amongst that they had formed a slight friendship which often consisted of one upping each other with stories each week of the stupidest things a student had come out with. It was however rare that he would come to her during the hours of class, usually there was a document in hand, something she needed to sign or something new she was expected to teach them, the difference in their meeting this time is that he was accompanied by another ninja, one who was not of the Konoha, but by the headband he wore, from Suna.

"Apologies for the intrusion, the Hokage asked if you would mind an assistant, or more someone to learn how we work at the academy here in the Leaf."

Already Akari was looking the stranger over, her was taller than her with a face adorned in paint, brown hair peeking through the headpiece he had on that could have been mistaken for part of his clothing with how much black he was wearing on the rest of his body, but upon his lips was a cheeky sort of grin, one that made her want to smack it off his face without a moments thought. Naturally Akari refrained from such a thing, a hand going to her hip as she looked at the pair of them before sighing and offering out a hand. She wasn't too sure of the Hokage's angle in all of this, but she was sure that there was one, if anything the man should have been following around Iruka, he'd been doing the job far longer than her and had better results that she believed the would have.

"Akari Mizumo," she stated awaiting the stranger to take her hand.

"Kankuro," replied the other, though he didn't quite take her hand, more he grabbed it and kissed the back of it with a cheeky wink that brought her blood to boiling point.

Iruka couldn't help but laugh nervously as he rubbed the back of his head, he knew Akari well enough to know that she was fuming inside, though did well enough to control it as only her free hand shook a little as a sign of her annoyance, although all too quickly she had pulled her hand from his grasp earning small giggles from behind her.

"Did someone tell you to stop running?!" she yelled out turning her head to look at the class of children who stood staring at her with somewhat startled expressions, almost immediately returning to a much speedier jog than they had previously been doing.

"Heh...wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

Akari chose to ignore Kankuro's words at that moment, her eyes on Iruka as if he were to blame for her current predicament.

To Kankuro this was a sort of game to him, much as he had played back in the village with many of the women there, some of them were feisty like the woman before him, others would succumb to him almost immediately due to his status within Suna, but he near enough always got what he wanted. Despite the fact that he was there on official business, that didn't mean that he was going to stop trying to have a little bit of fun where he could, and currently the woman before him had become his unfortunate new conquest, at least until he got bored and found the next person he wanted to move onto.

Temari had often scolded him for his treatment of women, stating that they weren't play things to be messed around with as he would one of his puppets, but she had so far failed to get though to him and his ways hadn't changed yet, if anything, since the war had ended he had gotten worse, the boredom of official business getting to him more as he was expected to sit in on missions and deal with paperwork, not exactly what he signed up for when he became a ninja.

"The Hokage insisted I take over for today, she wanted you to show Kankuro the academy and plans for lessons," Iruka muttered from behind Kankuro, he was almost afraid that she was going to lash out at him again for passing on a simple message that she would have to spend more time with the notorious flirtatious ninja but she only sighed and rubbed her temples again.

"Fine...but you realise this is a punishment, don't go all soft and let them off or they'll try and walk all over me like last time," Akari replied before turning back to her class. "Everyone, Iruka will be taking over your class for today, I expect you all to behave and if I hear even a little about you misbehaving for him you'll be running laps until you get the chance to graduate, you hear?"

A chorus of 'Yes Akari-sensei' followed her words, though from the beams on their faces she could tell that they were more than happy for Iruka to take over, that wasn't to say that her mentor was soft, just that he had a soft spot for the kids, especially the ones he didn't actually have to teach on a daily basis, but as Iruka stepped past her she knew it was time for her to have to deal with the other problem on her hands. The fully grown man that was stood oggling her very obviously.

"Kankuro, are you going to follow me or just stand there staring?"

A grin was her only response to which she shook her head and lead the way back inside the academy to give him to grand tour of the building. She started off with the various classrooms, adding which teachers dealt with the other age groups within the building.

"Generally one staff member will remain with their class from joining the academy to leaving, we believe it helps build a bond of trust with their sensei and helps to prepare them for working as part of a team in the future."

Next up was the various rooms they used for training, the examination room where ninja would graduate, or fail depending on the test they were given. Akari didn't particularly care that Kankuro was taking little notice of everything she was showing him, in reality she wanted this to be over quickly and as painlessly as possible.

"Finally, this is my class, generally this is where you'll find me outside of academy hours and during lunch perio-"

"Without a lock on the door we're not exactly going to get very busy in here," stated Kankuro.

Once again Akari forced back the words that wanted to leave her lips and instead went to pull a spare chair up to her desk, laying out some of the files from her drawer before bring her eyes to look at him, willing for him to just sit down, but it seemed that Kankuro of course had other ideas at that moment as he stood before her desk with a grin still plastered on his face.

Her eyebrow began to twitch as they remained staring at one another for a minute or two before she snapped.

"I think you have come here with the wrong intentions, I have absolutely no desire to crack on with you Kankuro so please just sit down so we can get this over with okay?"

"You've only just met me, you could just give me a chance?"

"Rumors of you travel beyond your own village Kankuro, i've heard your name before and the many stories and I am not going to buy into it. You can keep trying all you want, but it is never, ever going to happen. For one I can't understand how anyone falls for the crap that comes out your mouth, let alone your actions, so keep your mind on business and not anything else. Clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good, now sit down."

With a sigh and roll of his eyes Kankuro took his seat to Akari's right, eyes staring boredly at the papers as she explained the topics she was currently going over and the plans for the following months. Kankuro wasn't even sure why Gaara needed this information in the first place, perhaps it was just to get him out of the village for a while since he had been complaining enough about being cooped up there, but this wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

"Now, I believe that's everything that I needed to share with you for the day, unless there's anything else I think we're done," she stated closing up the file.

"You don't exactly seem a natural at this you know?"

"Just what exactly do you mean by that?" Akari snapped back.

"The whole teaching a new generation of Ninja's thing, I mean, i've known you all of an hour or two and I can see that."

"Technically i'm still learning, i'm new to teaching but I will pick it up."

She was sure of herself for one thing, that much Kankuro couldn't deny, but it did also seem that she was pushing herself to be good at something that perhaps she was never going to be good at, he wasn't too sure why he felt the need to voice his opinion on the topic but he could tell that she hasn't taken kindly to his words as she rose up.

"I'm sure you can find your own way back to where you're staying, or you can find someone else to hold your hand and take you there."

With a huff Akari was grabbing her bag and leaving, normally there would be a large number of hours left of the day but it did feel nice to know that the rest of the day was her own and she was tempted to head to the hot springs to give herself some relaxation after the morning she'd had already. As she left the room Kankuro's eyes followed her before shaking his head, he did love a good challenge that was for sure, but he didn't know how dedicated he could be to the cause, she seemed like she'd take a long time to warm up to him and she wasn't exactly a model, he could probably find a woman more curvy and attractive at the local bar that would hand herself over to him without a second thought, but maybe he wanted to try and take on the little red headed fireball, even if it did take him a little longer than usual.

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A/N: It's been some time since motivation has hit me to do some writing again, especially something that doesn't follow the Naruto canon, but heres my first post-war fic. I know some people love a bit of constructive criticism, but honestly i'd rather you didn't, I just write for a little bit of fun and I feel like even the constructive stuff knocks my inspiration a little. I hope you enjoyed anyway and I look forward to writing the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

It was the day after Akari had been first introduced to Kankuro and she was already dreading seeing the taller ninja again, some may have been flattered to have the strong attention of the Kazekage's older brother, and maybe that was what Kankuro was bagging on, he'd probably had much success in the past with people throwing themselves on his just for a taste of his status. Akari, however had little interest in status or the position that someone held, if anything it pushed her away, made her want to hold the person at arms length, she knew that with status came expectations, rules, things she didn't want to fill her life with. It wasn't that she was afraid of commitment, she'd had boyfriend in the past, though she'd never considered any of them to be serious and most of them had remaining friends with her, or at least civil, but it had just made Akari realise that it just wasn't a priority fr her, she'd never really made an effort with her appearance to try and get another man, in fact she had never truly studied her own appearance herself.

Really Akari considered herself pretty average, she was an average height though falling a little on the shorter side, she was an average build for a ninja of the leaf, a less than average flat chest and really the only thing that stood out about her was the fiery red hair atop her head, it hit her lower back when down and was the only thing that made her stand out in a crowd. It was a gift from her fathers side of the family, all of them shared the same vibrant look, though from the pictures of her family that littered her room you couldn't have really told, with the mans age came the dulling of his head, silvers and greys mixing with it, making it look less vibrant than the beaming Akari in all the pictures. From her mother she had gotten her bright green eyes, a few shades lighter than grass and something she was always reminded of by anyone that had ever known her mother in passing.

Sighing at herself Akari tied her forehead protector across her head before moving her sighs from the large mirror that hung in the bathroom, she wasn't too sure why she had concerned herself with how she looked that morning, why she had spent so long just looking over every inch of her face, but she was done, now fully ready to start her day.

Grabbing her usual bag Akari left her apartment, locking the door before proceeding to slowly walk to the academy, she often woke over an hour earlier than she really needed to meaning that she didn't need to rush in order to get to work each morning. Despite living in Konoha her entire life she still enjoyed taking in the village as it woke each morning, the vibrant greens of her home were beautiful, the brightly coloured signs of the shops around her giving the village more life and she couldn't have imagined living anywhere quite like it. As a ninja she had visited many other lands, and each of them left her homesick and wanting to return to Konoha without a second thought.

A voice calling out to her brought her feet to stop, eyes looking behind her before a small frown came to her lips upon seeing the Suna nin grinning at her, a small wave offered in her direction before he came to join her.

"Mind if I join you?"

Akari so badly wanted to say no to him, but at the same time had to think of him as a mission, her own personal mission where she would have to try not strangling the slightly older ninja out of annoyance and aggravation.

"Well were going in the same direction so I don't see why not," she replied running her fingers through her hair before turning back to face the way they were heading not quite awaiting him to catch up. "How long are you expected to be here for?"

"A few weeks, month at the most, why? Are you finally starting to warm up to me?" Once again a grin was plastered over Kankuro's face, Akari's eyes rolling a little.

"I wouldn't go that far, just wanted to know how long I could expect a visitor in my class, though i'm assuming not every day will be spent with me?"

"Well, i'll be taking turns in other classes, but it seems you were the main one the Hokage put me with."

Once again Akari couldn't see why, unless it was because of the short time she had been in the position or the Hokage had something up her sleeve, though professional when she wanted to be Akari didn't doubt that she would hatch plans with certain intentions in mind, wondering if she could perhaps ask the Hokage about this later on that day to get a real reason and stop her minds questions. Her silence and mind lost in thought didn't go unnoticed, in fact Kankuro had found himself watching her, amused by the glazed look over her eyes.

"Jealous that I won't be all yours?"

"Are you ever going to stop that?" Akari questioned with a slight scowl. "Why does everything have to go that way with you?"

"I just state what I se-"

"Well stop it. It's obvious I don't want to throw myself at you, and perhaps if you realised that and stopped trying to find a hidden meaning in everything this task would be a lot less painful for us both."

Akari couldn't see it, but Kankuro had taken a turn in scowling at the woman before him, he was far from happy at the knowledge that she saw him as some sort of burden, a task that she had to complete in the easiest way possible, did this woman see everything thrown at her as a mission or something? For a teacher it wasn't exactly a good thing, especially if she saw her class as a mission and not as students she should be caring for and moulding to be the next great batch of ninja for the village.

A click from beside him brought his attention back to Akari for a moment, surprise evident on his features as found a small flame in her hand and a white stick poking from her lips which started to emit it's own flame for a moment before smoke streamed from the tip. A wrinkle was at his nose as the smell hit his nose harshly, it was something he become increasingly unfond of, especially after his sister had started dating the Nara that could now often be found with a cigarette at his lips. The surprise also came from the fact that she didn't look like the kind of person to be a smoker, the kind of person with any sort of addition at that, at least he could form some understanding as to why his sister's boyfriend did so, the memories of his sensei probably coming to mind as he inhaled each drag, but with the woman before him it hadn't even crossed his mind.

From that moment Kankuro walked a few steps ahead so to keep out of the stream of smoke that left her lips, that still distant, thoughtful look on her face as they continued to walk in silence to their destination. Pausing outside the academy Kankuro turned to find her a lot further behind him than he'd originally thought, her steps seemingly in time with a pace that filled her head, and it was slow, painfully slow for the man.

"We'll be looking at Chakra control today, and see how much they actually know about control," Akari stated as they both finally stepped through the doors, a hum sounding from the various rooms of the academy around them.

Kankuro followed Akari into her classroom where her students were yelling across to one another, some of them bouncing from seat to seat, another few drawing on the board that sat behind Akari's desk.

"Everyone get to your seats!" Akari called out and silence washed over the entire room, students hurrying to get back to their seats as her brow rising as she looked at the image on the board that had beed drawn, an incomplete image of herself looking far more angry than she had really considered herself to be, but she simply approached it and quickly rubbed the drawing away. "Now, for the following weeks we will have a guest in our classroom, Kankuro will be joining us as an assistant in the academy and I expect you to show him some respect."

Already hands were flapping in the air to which Akari took no notice, and as she began to call out the names of her students to find out if anyone was missing that morning the hand slowly fell down in defeat.

"Does anyone know where Hana is this morning?"

"Probably still asleep Akari-sensei," chirruped a small plump child on the front row. "As us-"

"Sorry i'm late Akari-sensei!"

The door had been flung wide by a small girl whose hair showed she had clearly just woken up, clothing disheveled and a pair of bunny slippers still evident on hers students feet which she stared at for a moment in disbelief before sighing and rubbing her temples.

"Please try to actually be on time Hana, i'm starting to believe you don't actually want to become a ninja."

Hana seemed to sulk as she made her way to her desk, slumping down trying to keep herself awake as their sensei began to talk about the lesson she had prepared today which earned a few small groans which Akari had become accustomed to over the short time she had been there. It seemed they all expected to be learning powerful jutsu at their age, none of them realising that they had to actually learn a thing or two before they had gotten to that point, but at least they were eager to get started on something that wasn't running laps.

A few textbook questions were thrown to her class about different chakra types, about the basics of chakra control, and of course the question of what exactly chakra was, and as usual the same few students were the ones that came up with the answers, the few students that didn't create such a riot in her class and truly did seem to be there to learn more than anything. They were probably the few students Akari favoured, though really she shouldn't have favourites at all.

"Now then, get with your partners and follow me out to the training area," Akari stated after getting the answers to which the students once again filed from the class, all of them in discussions as they made their way. In the training ground Akari and Kankuro stood near the large tree that had been set there, a simple way of testing the students control of their chakra in a way that wasn't about to cause the destruction of the academy in the process. "For this I want to see how much practice you've been putting in, show me what you've been learning."

With chakra in her feet Akari ran up the trunk of the tree, embedding a kunai at the very top of it before kicking off from the tree, performing a summersault before then landing back on her feet before her class that gave a few excited comments before then looking down at their own feet.

"In your pairs you need to work on controlling the chakra in your feet, before lunch each of you will attempt to run up the tree leaving a kunai in highest spot you can reach, understood?"

"Yes Akari-sensei!"

Once the chorus of voices died down they spread out across the training area and once again Akari gave a sigh before looking to Kankuro whose eyes had begun to burn a hole in her skull.

"Is there something you wanted to say?"

"Do you care about your students?" Kankuro asked, his face now serious as he looked over her.

"Of course I care about them..."

"Hm..."

A twitch came to Akari's brow again, a scowl at her lips as she looked back on her class again.

"You can assist the teams over there, help them with their control before the test, if any of them seem ready let them take a trial run."

Her instructions were met with a nod, but his gaze didn't seem to leave her, even when he had gone to the teams that were under his direction and she could feel them the whole time, even as she spoke to some of the students, even as she tried to give some more demonstration to those that were struggling, all she could feel were his eyes and it was causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end. She was glad when it came time for lunch, calling each of the students up to try against the tree, some of them did better than she had expected, one even making it fully up the trunk of the tree, though there were others that took one step on the trunk and fell flat back onto the ground and cursed under their breath earning a yell from Akari as they did it, but she took note of how far each of them had gotten making sure she could write out a detailed report on each of her students once they had left for the day.

"Ladies, your afternoon will be spent in the flower fields with the other girls of the academy, boys your afternoon will be spent under Iruka where you will receive a visit from the Hokage, so please try to not be late."

With another chorus of responses Akari was finally free for the day, sighing as she settling back into her seat and looked over the pile of files she now had to add the information of their test to.

"Need any help with any of that?" Kankuro asked from his position of currently being leant against the wall beside her.

"No offense, but as their teacher it is my job to fill out their files and report them back to Iruka, and I have the rest of the day to take care of it. Besides, aren't you spending the afternoon with the boys?"

"It was just an offer," Kankuro replied giving a shrug, watching as the files were stored in a scroll that she would more than likely take home for the evening to work on. There was still something strange about her, something that was bugging Kankuro to no end, and he still couldn't figure out how Akari had gotten the position at the academy in the first place, despite the fact that she seemed like the wrong person for the job, but as she rose, mind seemingly elsewhere he couldn't help but fall back on his original plan.

A first hand grabbed her wrist, catching her off-guard and tugged her sharply into the firm body of the taller ninja, mouth about to yell something at him when something soft latched themselves onto her, silencing her immediately that sent her eyes wide. Meanwhile Kankuro was doing his best not to laugh at her reaction, a simple kiss that lasted mere seconds giving him something to enjoy as a tongue left his lips and licked over them, she'd still had a slightly bitter taste of smoke to her, but also something fruity cutting through that, not that he could focus on it much longer as her palm collided with the side of his face.

No words escaped her from his actions, but a clear pinkness had appeared at her cheeks which he just about saw as she grabbed her bag and fled from the academy in a hurry.

* * *

A/N: So just for information, this isn't going to be a fast romance, there is a lot more to go between this and the reality of the plot going with this story so I hope you'll bear with the rocky start for the two of them, at the same time as this i'm also rewriting an old story. As per last time, please no criticism constructive or not, I just write for a bit of fun and it tends to knock all my inspiration and motivation out of me. Hope you enjoyed!


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